Oil coming out the exhaust - Help!!

[corradostuff 0]

Today I noticed loads of oil all around the back of my valver. It was all up the rear, around the rear arches, everywhere, like a mist of oil but with some big puddles too. I did some investigating and its coming from the exhaust. There is lots of oil in the emissions and some is leaking between joints in the exhaust. I'm guessing I have an engine problem of some kind cos there shouldn't be any oil in the exhaust should there? I don't really have a clue but am very concerned as the last thing I need is a big problem with my engine. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I've checked the engine bay and all seems ok, its a 2L 16v by the way. Cheers

[dr_mat 0]

Does it smoke a lot while it's running? You'd see if there was *that* much oil coming out the back of the exhaust..

How's it running?

[Jim 2]

You havent recently had the oil changed on the car have you?

[corradostuff 0]

It does seem to be smoking more than it used to out the back of the exhaust. Its hard to tell in the cold but i'd say it is fairly smoky. It's not black smoke, mainly white/grey but when I hold a cloth over the end of the exhaust, it gets covered quite quickly in a black watery/oily type mixture. And if I wipe inside the exhaust its oily.

 

The car seems to run ok, no noticeable loss in power, although the MPG is bad. I'm getting about 20mpg on the MFA reading on a fairly long drive which seems worse than it should be.

 

Haven't changed the oil recently at all. Last one was in April, its about due a change. I've checked the oil level, its ok, a bit low so I topped it up but it didn't need much. I also looked at the oil cap and inside and there's no sign of any water or sludge in there.

[Pickard1 0]

You should check the oil level and see if you have actually lost any. I would have thought that if that much was coming out you would have had to top up by now.

 

I had black stuff coming out of my exhaust that coated the entire rear of the car - turned out to be soot from overfueling caused by a dodgy lambda probe. That could also explain your MPG problem too.

[dr_mat 0]

Indeed, that sounds more likely...

[Supercharged 2]

Blocked breather!

[PhatVR6 0]

or HG might have gone

[RS VR6 0]

Might be your valve seals, if its not the piston rings.

 

Check the bottom of your oil cap and coolant reservior. If your HG is blown...there should be oil and coolant mixed togther. Would a blown HG cause oil to come out of the exhaust? Normally if you have a blown HG...the car would overheat and there would be a loss of coolant.

[corradostuff 0]

Thanks for all your help. I've changed the exhaust now as I had no silencers and there were some leaks which probably wasn't helping. I've also changed the oil. Since doing that there hasn't been any more black soot or oil coming from the exhaust but still not sure its cured. The MPG is still poor so I'm thinking lambda probe as suggested. I'm fairly sure the head gasket hasn't gone, the oil was fine and not watery at all and the filler cap is clean. The coolant is also fine. So I'm going to search about the lambda probe, is it easy to get hold of and change? Sounds expensive! Then if that doesn't help I'll get the engine looked at to check piston rings/valve seals I guess.

[double-6s 0]

Doesn't sound like this is the same as your problem, but I once had loads of oil over the back of the car which I assumed was coming from the exhaust. Turned out to be an oil seal on the bottom of the engine somewhere that was p*ssing all the way under the car at speed.

 

I reckon yours is over-fuelling cos of a knackered lamda though as said above.